Budget Explorer · City of Dallas

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Dallas, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Sep 30, 2023. City of Dallas's own FY2026 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 1.30M residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$5.72B

$4,400 per resident

Total spending

$5.47B

$4,212 per resident

Spending per resident

$4,212

57th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$12.9B

$9,927 per resident · 88th percentile of 70

Own-source share

90%

87th percentile of 71

Capital share

26%

78th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$5.72B total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$1.46B26%
General sales tax$426M7%
Selective sales taxes$198M3%
License & other taxes$54M1%
Federal aid$459M8%
State & local aid$86M2%
Charges & fees$2.22B39%
Interest, fines, other$301M5%
Utility revenue$520M9%

Own-source share of general revenue 90% · federal aid 9% · property tax is 68% of taxes

Where it goes

$5.47B total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

Transportation$1.79B33%
Public safety$1.20B22%
Environment & housing$599M11%
General government$502M9%
Interest on debt$486M9%
Utilities (water, power, gas)$450M8%
Culture & recreation$361M7%
Health & hospitals$38M1%
Public welfare$29M1%
Transfers to other governments$15M0%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Air transportation	Transportation	$864M	$606M	$1.47B
Police protection	Public safety	$654M	$19M	$672M
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$277M	$173M	$450M
Fire protection	Public safety	$428M	$17M	$445M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$232M	$138M	$370M
Highways	Transportation	$166M	$156M	$321M
General (unallocable)	General government	$184M	$132M	$315M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$247M	$51M	$299M
Solid waste management	Environment & housing	$107M	$18M	$125M
Protective inspection & regulation	Public safety	$73M	$5.9M	$79M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$55M	$19M	$74M
Libraries	Culture & recreation	$35M	$27M	$62M
General public buildings	General government	$32M	$24M	$56M
Central staff services	General government	$46M	$128K	$47M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+25% over 2 yrs

$4.56B → $5.72B

Spending

+19% over 2 yrs

$4.60B → $5.47B

Debt outstanding

+16% over 2 yrs

$11.1B → $12.9B

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Dallas	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$4,212	$3,741	57th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$4,400	$3,548	60th	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$1,643	$1,328	64th	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$9,927	$3,865	88th	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	90%	81%	87th	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	9%	7%	67th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	26%	18%	78th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	9%	4%	92nd	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	2.26×	1.05×	96th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 482113187649 (Dallas City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Current budget · FY2026

City of Dallas's own budget, in its own structure, from its open-data portal. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 56 departments.

$4.31B total

Water Utilities DWU$902M21%
Police Department GF$758M18%
Debt Service BMS$491M11%
Dallas Fire Rescue GF$453M11%
Airport Operations AVI$209M5%
Sanitation Operating Fund$166M4%
Public Works GF$157M4%
Information Technology DSV$148M3%
Convention Center CCT$133M3%
Non-Departmental$128M3%
Park and Recreation GF$117M3%
Storm Drainage Mgmt Operations$91M2%
All other (44)$558M13%

Dallas publishes the current budget rather than a separate adopted column, so amendments during the year are included.
Summary level: appropriation and object group, with no line-item detail.
Capital and bond programs are folded in as fund types rather than held separately.
Source: Operating Budget (socrata open data), retrieved 2026-09-07 · ODC-BY. Re-run this query.

Looking for how this fits City of Dallas's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Dallas capacity assessment.